Curriculum Reform Coverage in The Montreal Gazette: A Content Analysis of Two Phases of Implementation

In 2000, the Quebec government launched a substantial curriculum reform combining a "back to basics" approach with progressive principles that drew some initial approval in the media. During its implementation, however, the reform became an increasingly contentious topic, culminating in the education minister publicly suggesting it was a failure less than a decade later. In order to identify and evaluate the leading sources of discord, the author looked at opinion statements about the curriculum reform appearing in The Montreal Gazette, and compared findings with the literature on educational change as well as key planning and policy documents. She found that discourse about the reform in The Gazette was largely negative in the years leading up to implementation at the elementary level, and pessimism intensified ahead of the later implementation at the secondary level, as did misinformation about the reform's principles and practices. Furthermore, she notes, many of the contested aspects were anticipated by the literature. The author concludes that at minimum, improved communication and collaboration seems necessary in order to nurture the dissemination of any new philosophy of education and the pedagogical practices it entails, and to prevent the reform from falling victim to premature perceptions that it has altogether failed.

Master's Thesis

Concordia University

Montreal

2012

viii-119p.

en